The Return
by Blanky
Summary: Rose-chan meets her old foe again, Slappy the Dummy. She agrees to become his slave at last, thinking there is a way out of all this. Slowly, she finds herself falling for the loathsome ventriloquist doll-surely not...?
1. I'm back!

'Hello? Mr James? Ive come about the cleaning job...'she called out nervously, feeling more uneasy by the second. Oh stop it! she berated herself, youre almost 16 years old, stop being scared! There was no reply.

*Background*  
>Things weren't too peachy for Rosechan. She was a lot busier now in the older class at Wacky High, only 1 more year to go before college, with important tests and assignments to do. It was now the holidays and she had finished most of her assignments, but she had another problem: cash. Since more staff had been hired, she had been given only 1 shift at the place she worked, where she had done 4 shifts. Which meant she was low on cash and decided to look for an extra job. She didn't care what kind of job it was, she would be happy with even private tutoring a couple of times a week, and some people she knew paid good money for this, and specially for babysitting for a couple of hours a week. Maybe she would be lucky enough to work for somebody famous even? Or maybe she could offer her services as a performer comedian at Wackyland's Comedy Bar, 1 Night a week. But people probably wouldn't pay to see an amateur performer, not to mention her parents wouldn't be happy for her to stay out late. So that idea had been scrapped.

It had been a Sunday afternoon, her parents were enjoying the beautiful weather in the park and Antony was at his piano lesson. She was sitting with a cup of coffee in her room, a pile of papers on the table. She picked up the first one, the Wacky High Gazette from yesterday. She was a member of the editorial team and quite often her pictures appeared. As fun as it was, it didn't earn her any cash. She giggled as she came across the photo of her with Stephanie and Beavis and Butthead-from their time out on Friday night. She no longer hated the boys and they no longer found her uncool. The paper also advertised jobs, but mainly student jobs, nothing eyes happen to fall on an ad that read 'Cleaner Wanted'. Cleaner? she frowned. She knew the choices were limited but she was expecting something a little more exciting. But something urged her to read on, almost as if the ad were calling her, that it was especially there for her. Might as well take it she thought, it doesn't sound as boring as car washer or sandwich courier. The pay was quite good and it was only twice a week. She was also intrigued by the address, it was a quiet hidden place, in the opposite direction of the Cryptkeeper's mansion- a spooky old ramshackle, surrounded by nothing but a forest and Rosechan loved spooky places. It had been posted by a Mr James, maybe he was someone rich? Her curiosity got the better of her so she decided to investigate there and then. She got out her bike and zoomed off.

She usually hated cycling on the weekend as it was full of traffic, but the forest was more peaceful and there were hardly any people in that area. This was because people tended to stay away as they believed it to be haunted. Sometimes curious kids would turn up, but that was all. She reached the place and left her bike outside the gate. The afternoon sunshine filtered through the branches. Feeling a little uneasy she opened the door and crept in.

'Hello?' she called out again. Maybe it would have been better to call first, but then she remembered that oddly there was no contact number. She began to regret ever coming here, especially since she didn't know the man - what if it had been in fact some psycho, who wanted to kidnap and murder her? She carried on, even though her instinct was telling her to get out of there as soon as possible. The house was dark inside, the only light was from outside, which filtered through the windows and cracks in the walls.

'Hello? Mr James?'

'Im in here,' an eerie voice called out at last, making her jump.

'Uh, I've come about the job', she stammered, as she pushed open the door,squinting through the gloom to get a better view. There was no one in the room, only a swivel chair with its back to her. The voice spoke again:

'Come right in, ive been expecting you - the chair suddenly swiveled to face her- ROSECHAN!' The wooden mouth broke into a fit of evil cackles as Rosechan screamed in terror. Slappy the evil dummy was back.


	2. Old habits die hard

'Im back!' he cackled evily.

'NO! i got rid of you, im not scared of you anymore, you cant hurt me!' And with that she ran out of the house, not even stopping for her bicycle but just running blindly through the woods until she reached home, opened the door and rushed inside, bolting the door. She stopped breathless, panting like a dog and leant against the door for scurity. No. No way this was happening all over again. She had gone through all that trouble to get rid of him last time. And now he was back. Back to enslave her.

She decided to have a lie down after her ordeal. She put on some calming yoga music-her new passion, and soon her trembling body and viciously pumping heart began to calm was even about to doze off, when the front door opened. She sat bolt upright in shock and armed herself with her golf club. But it was only her parents and bro back. She decided not to tell them what had happened. She didnt want to worry them - they wouldnt believer her anyway and maybe get her to talk to the school counsellor, and they wouldnt be too happy about her having gone to that place which they disapproved of, for the fact it was deserted and anything could happen to her.

She woke up the next morning refreshed, believing last night to have been nothing more than a nightmare. The sun was shining too, so it promised to be a good day.

But she couldn't have been more wrong. First, she was in for a nasty shock in her writing class.

'Good morning everyone, I trust you all had a pleasant weekend,' Miss Manuela barked.'Now, you will be getting back your assignments you did last week, the story continuations. I have to say that everybody did well except 1 student. Rose, I'm very sorry to say you have failed. Not only was it irrelevant to the theme, but it's the worst you've ever done.'

'What?' Rosechan Exclaimed in surprise. 'That can't be true, I answered the question and spent all week on it!' But it didn't make any difference. She sat glumly staring at the big red F on her paper. What would she tell the parents? She glanced at the paper again, her eyes filling with tears. Then she stared in horror and disbelief. There had to be some mixup. What she was reading was nothing like what she had written, but something out of a gory horror story. This was definitely not her style. Someone was having joke, maybe one of the members of the horror stories club had decided to swap her assignment for a laugh, it was more their style. 'Miss, this isnt...she began, but stopped herself in time. There was no use in trying to explain something even she couldn't comprehend. What a bad start, she thought, shaking her head. But worse was to come.

The sports class had climbing that afternoon. She dreaded it as she was afraid of heights, even though she had done quite well recently. She waited around nervously for her turn so she could be over and done with it. She climbed to the usual spot she usually climbed. But today, something was making her climb even higher, as if she couldn't stop toll she reached the to. She didn't even hear the shouts of praise and encouragement from her classmates and teachers she was concentrating hard; straining every muscle in her body, and she didn't stop till she reached the very top. Nobody have ever reached that high before. She was amazed. How did I do that? She wondered in disbelief. And then, she lost her footing and felt her foot slip. She scrabbled, holding onto the rope for dear life. And then...She woke up after what seemed like ages. Her body was aching all over, in particular her back and leg. She looked around and found herself in the first aid room, her teacher and classmates around her with worried faces.

'Rosechan, are you alright?' her teacher asked.

'You were doing so well, you reached the top, higher than any of us have ever reached, we didn't think you would fall,' said Suzie.

'Your harness was faulty, no wonder it started to tear. Lucky you the saftey mat was just underneath you. You passed out as soon as you reached it, ' Trishy, her other classmate said, patting her hand.

'Climbing will be postponed while we investigate what caused the harness to break,' her teacher said. 'But well done for reaching the top!'

'Yeah!' shouted her classmates in cheer, and they ll picked her up, chanting 'She is a champion'.

Dolly sat in her favourite chair facing the window, holding Mr. Ted. She had had him a long time, since she could remember. She loved just sitting quietly holding him, it was soothing to her. Out of her immense doll collection, he was her most favourite and she felt she could talk to him about anything. She was usually quiet and kept to herself, preferring the company of her dolls than other people. Dolly lived at the Home for Kids. Nobody knew anything about her or what had happened to her parents, only that she had been brought in one day by a mysterious person. None of the other kids spoke to her, in fact they tended to avoid her. Nobody wanted to adopt her either. It was probably the way she looked: long auburn pigtails, a pale porcelain-like face, deep blue eyes, big eyelashes- almost doll like. She was always dressed in a victorian gothic black and white dress and sported a mysterious scar on the side of her neck, around which hung an ancient gold heart shaped locket. People found her to be eerie somewhat. The carers were a little concerned and tried to get her to open up, to no avail.

Rosechan had spent the rest of the afternoon in the first aid room, where she managed to nap for a while. She felt safe there. Her body was still aching, but only a little, in fact she felt she could walk again so she got up and after thanking the first aiders, left to get her books and go home. As she walked outside into the sunny courtyard, she tried to figure out what had been happening that day. Nothing seemed to make sense... Suddenly she noticed her bike standing by the gate. She rushed towards it happily, she was sad to think she had lost it as it was her favourite bike. But her joy was short lived:

'Hello, Slave!'

'EEk!' Rosechan screamed in terror as Slappy suddenly jumped out from behind the bike.

'Ahahahah!' he cackled evilly. 'You were in such a hurry to leave yesterday, you left it behind. So I thought I'd bring it back to its rightful owner!'

'H-h-h-o-w very kind,' Rosechan stammered in disbelief. 'How...?'

'I'm back! And you won't be rid of me this time, Slave, and you will do exactly as I say! Otherwise, I will harm your loved ones. And it won't be little scares like you had today!'

'Those...were your doing?!' she cried, suddenly understanding everything. Slappy had been behind her bad luck that day. She could have died because of him.

'Ok,' she said at last. 'Fine. You got me, master Slappy. I'll do what you want, but don't you dare hurt my family and friends!' At the same time, she thought, maybe I can find a way out of this situation, I'll read books and speak to a necromancer. For now I'd better give him the impression that I will be his slave. 'I have once condition though: You are not coming home with me, you can stay in my school locker. No way I'm keep you at mine!'

'Fine, Slave!' cackled Slappy, happy to have her where he wanted her. She was terrified of him, she'd do exactly as he said.


End file.
